By Hajer Mrabet

I. Definition V. Key figures

II. Origin VI. Significance and
III. The People’s consequences
charter VII. Conclusion
IV. The Charters VIII. Bibliography
I. Definition

• Chartism is a British working class political movement for parliamentary

reform that developed in the United Kingdom in the mid-nineteenth century,
following the adoption of the People's Charter.

• The aim of the Chartists was to gain political rights and influence for the
working classes.
• Chartism was the first movement both working class in character and
national in scope that grew out of the protest against the injustices of the
new industrial and political order in Britain.

• While composed of working people, Chartism was also mobilized around

populism as well as clan identity.
II. Origin
• The movement was born amid the economic depression of 1837–38, when
high unemployment and the effects of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834
were felt in all parts of Britain.

• It was both a political reaction to a series of setbacks suffered by the working

classes during the 1830s, and a response to economic hardship.

• Chartism was only a mass movement in times of depression, with peaks of

activity coinciding with troughs in the economy.
• There was an important political dimension to the growth and popularity of
Chartism as well .

• In 1832 the Reform Act had extended the vote to members of the propertied
middle classes. Since working-class leaders had been campaigning with the
middle classes for a wider franchise, they consequently felt betrayed by the
resulting Act, which essentially excluded the working classes.
• Moreover, the subsequent actions of the ensuing Whig government—
including the 1834 New Poor Law, the transportation of the Tolpuddle
martyrs (leaders of a union of agricultural labourers), the institution of
borough and county police, and the war on the unstamped press—served to
further confirm, in the eyes of the working classes, the government as a
powerful, malevolent machine dedicated to repressing Britain's workers
• The solution that was put forward and that became popular was to try to
change the basis of political representation, as it was the unrepresentative
political system that allowed the middle classes and the aristocracy to
suppress the working classes; “only when every man had the vote,” it was
argued, “would the British parliament operate with equality and justice.”

• It was thus that a large proportion of the working classes in Britain during
the late 1830s and 1840s sought to remedy their social and economic
grievances through an essentially political movement.
III. The People’s Charter

• People's Charter is a document that was drawn up in 1838 for the London
Working Men's Association (LWMA) by William Lovett and Francis Place,
two self-educated radicals, in consultation with other members of LWMA.
The charter stated the ideological basis of the Chartist movement

• It detailed the six key points that the Chartists believed were necessary to
reform the electoral system and thus alleviate the suffering of the working
classes
 Universal suffrage (the right to vote)

When the Charter was written in 1838, only 18 per cent of the adult-male
population of Britain could vote (before 1832 just 10 per cent could vote). The
Charter proposed that the vote be extended to all adult males over the age of
21, apart from those convicted of a felony or declared insane.
 No property qualification

When this document was written, potential members of Parliament needed to

own property of a particular value. This prevented the vast majority of the
population from standing for election. By removing the requirement of a
property qualification, candidates for elections would no longer have to be
selected from the upper classes.
 Annual parliaments

A government could retain power as long as there was a majority of support.

This made it very difficult to replace a bad or an unpopular government.
 Equal representation

The 1832 Reform Act had abolished the worst excesses of 'pocket boroughs'. A
pocket borough was a parliamentary constituency owned by a single patron
who controlled voting rights and could nominate the two members who were to
represent the borough in Parliament.

In some of these constituencies as few as six people could elect two members
of Parliament. There were still great differences between constituencies,
particularly in the industrial north where there were relatively few MPs
compared to rural areas.
The Chartists proposed the division of the United Kingdom into 300 electoral
districts, each containing an equal number of inhabitants, with no more than
one representative from each district to sit in Parliament.
 Payment of members

MPs were not paid for the job they did. As the vast majority of people required
income from their jobs to be able to live, this meant that only people with
considerable personal wealth could afford to become MPs. The Charter
proposed that MPs were paid an annual salary of £500.
 Vote by secret ballot

Voting at the time was done in public using a 'show of hands' at the 'hustings' (a
temporary, public platform from which candidates for parliament were
nominated). Landlords or employers could therefore see how their tenants or
employees were voting and could intimidate them and influence their
decisions. Voting was not made secret until 1871.
• Although The People’s Charter did not advocate any new ideas, it created a
central doctrine for radicals wishing to reform the political system. Support
for the Charter spread rapidly and its advocates became known as the
Chartists.
• Although all Chartists believed in and campaigned for the six points of The
People’s Charter, they were not an entirely unified group of people, and
certain members pursued other aims to try and improve the life of working-
class people in Britain. One Chartist, Feargus O’Connor even tried,
unsuccessfully, to relocate the working classes from the cities to his rural
utopia, O’Connorville.
IV. The Charters

• The Charter became a focus for many different working-class organizations.

O'Connor's Northern Star mobilised the support of thousands of northern
working men. Men gave up work and toured the country giving lectures in
support of the Charter.

• Many women's groups, known as 'hen chartists' were formed to support it.
• The Chartists organised three huge petitions to try to persuade Parliament to
agree to their demands:
 The First Charter

• The Chartists formed a Convention that met in Birmingham to organise

a petition.

• In June 1839, the Chartists tried to present the First Charter to Parliament. It
was nearly three miles long, and signed by 1,283,000 persons. Parliament
refused to receive it.

• As a result, in November 1839 John Frost tried to lead a Chartist

rebellion in Newport, South Wales. It was defeated, and the leaders
were transported.
 The Second Charter

• In May 1842, a Second Charter of more than 3,250,000 names was taken to
Parliament, who refused to receive it.

• As a result, the Chartists launched a month-long strike across the north

of England and in Scotland. These were called the 'Plug Plot riots',
because the strikers took the plugs from steam boilers to stop them
working. Thousands of Chartists were arrested and 79 were transported.
 The Third Charter

• In April 1848, thousands of Chartists met at Kennington Common in

London. They peacefully marched to Parliament with the third Charter
which they claimed had 5,706,000 signatures. Some signatures were shown
to be false and this was used to discredit it. Parliament debated the
Charter, but rejected it.

• The black Chartist William Cuffay was arrested for planning a rebellion,
and transported and The campaign for the Charter ended.
V. Key Chartists
 William lovett :
• Chartist leader in England, the person mainly
responsible for drafting the People’s Charter of
1838, demanding electoral reform.

• In 1836 Lovett and a number of other London

radicals founded the London Workingmen’s
Association, which issued the People’s Charter two
years later.
(Britannica)
• Lovett’s moderation made it difficult for him to work with the more militant
Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor; thus his role in Chartism was limited,
although in 1839 he was secretary of a Chartist national convention.

• Arrested after Chartist disturbances in Birmingham while the convention was

in progress there, he was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment in Warwick jail.
There he and John Collins, a fellow prisoner, wrote Chartism: A New
Organization of the People.
(Britannica)
• In 1841 Lovett established the National Association for Promoting the
Political and Social Improvement of the People, to which he devoted most
of his energies.

• He wrote (after 1857) a number of textbooks for working-class students.

(Britannica)
V. Key Chartists

 Feargus Edward O’Connor

• Prominent Chartist leader who succeeded in

making Chartism the first specifically working
class national movement in Great Britain.
• As a result of his humour, invective, and energy, O’Connor became the best
known Chartist leader and the movement’s most popular speaker. His
journal, the Northern Star (founded in 1837), gained a wide circulation.

• O’Connor’s methods and views alienated other Chartist leaders,

particularly William Lovett, but in 1841, after spending a year in prison for
seditious libel, O’Connor acquired undisputed leadership of the Chartists.

(Britannica)
• Failing to lead the movement to victory and vacillating in his attitude toward
the middle class and toward the Charter, O’Connor began to lose power.

• The failure of the Charter in 1848 marked the beginning of the end for
O’Connor, whose egocentricity was already bordering on madness.
Declared insane in 1852, he died three years later.
(Britannica)
V. Key Chartists
 John Frost

• Hero of Chartism and leader of the Newport

rising of November 4, 1839, in which about 20
Chartists were killed by troops.

• He was involved in militant Chartist activities that

culminated in the street battle on November 4.

(Britannica)
• The Chartist movement failure was explained by the "premature " and
"extreme " nature of its demands and the immaturity of a working-class that
had been led astray by unscrupulous demagogues (notably O'Connor) who
divided the movement and wrested it from its respectable and rational
artisanal roots.

• The decline of Chartism in times of economic prosperity and its demise as

working-class living standards rose after 1850 is seen as confirmation that
the movement was essentially an inchoate and reflexive response to
economic hardship.
VI. Significance and consequences

• Although they failed to persuade Parliament to adopt the Charter and none
of its aims had been achieved by 1850, eventually all its demands (except
yearly Parliaments) were achieved.

• Parliament abolished the property qualification for MPs in 1858, extended

the franchise to working-class males in 1867 and 1884, introduced
the secret ballot in 1872, redistributed constituencies in 1885, and
established payment for MPs in 1911.
• Chartism got poorer people interested in politics, mobilised the working
classes and inspired future protests and challenges to the establishment.

• There is a real argument that the men and women who devoted/sacrificed
their lives for the Chartist movement are the true heroes of democracy.
• Some claim that it provided a basis from which women could also assert
their rights and challenge the traditional establishment. Additionally, it
showed that it was possible for the masses to rise up against the authorities
and demand change.

• It inspired people in Great Britain to think about freedom and what rights
to expect. This made a major contribution to later appeals for change.
• Although there were attempted riots and rebellions, Chartism was mainly
peaceful – which meant that in 1848, the United Kingdom was one country
which did not have a revolution.

• There were also copycat Chartist movements in Canada, Australia and New
Zealand, where they were more successful. These had been inspired by the
movement in Britain and show its significance in world history.
• After the failure of the Charter, George Julian Harney, who supported
the Communist Manifesto, took over the movement, abandoned the Charter
and declared itself a socialist organisation.

• Despite the limited success of the Chartist movement in its own time,
almost all of the ideals held by its supporters were ultimately achieved.
“Historians need to consider how far Chartism influenced later
developments.” (BBC News)
Conclusion
 Knowles, L. “The Chartist Movement.” The Economic Journal, vol. 29, no. 114, 1919, pp. 202–207. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/2959907. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.
 Jones, David. Chartism and the Chartists. London: Allan Lane, 1975
 Royle, Edward. Chartism. Third edition. London: Longman, 1996.
 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Chartism.’’ Encyclopædia Britannica, March 20, 2020.
 “Chartism.” The British Library, The British Library, 7 Mar. 2014.
 “The National Archives Learning Curve: Power, Politics and Protest: The Chartists.” The National Archives.
 “Chartist Movement.” UK Parliament.
 "Chartist Movement." St. James Encyclopedia of Labor History Worldwide: Major Events in Labor History and Their
Impact . Encyclopedia.com. 16 Oct. 2020
 “A Summary of the Chartist Movement - The Chartists - KS3 History Revision - BBC Bitesize.” BBC News, BBC,
www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zhdhvcw/revision/1.
 Porritt, Edward. The American Political Science Review, vol. 11, no. 2, 1917, pp. 340–342. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/1943995. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
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